Others said the blame should fall more on parents who buy the games and allow their children to play them.
"These politicians cannot pull this," said Ian "Red" Morganstein, 29, an assistant manager at For Your Entertainment, a store in Friendship Heights that sells Grand Theft Auto and other games labeled mature. He said the store does not sell the games to anyone younger than 17.
Grand Theft Auto 3 is part of video game series in which robbing, killing and intimidation are objectives.
(Rockstar Games)
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Douglas Lowenstein, president of the Entertainment Software Association, answered questions about video game ratings and the industry.
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D.C. Councilmember Adrian Fenty discussed proposed legislation that would ban the sale of violent games.
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"It's not us. It's not the game companies. It's the parents," Morganstein said. He said he has turned away youngsters only to see them return with a parent. "If you're concerned about it, don't bring your 8-year-old son in here to buy games about violence and sex."
The Washington-based Entertainment Software Association noted last year that the average age of a video game player is 30 and that the average age of a video game purchaser is 36. Parents are involved in the purchase of games 83 percent of the time, the association said.
"When we look at our consumer graphic information, approximately 50 percent of purchases are made by women," said Anita Frazier, an analyst for the NPD Group, which tracks the industry. "They're largely buying it as a gift or as a reward to a child, a husband, a brother."
Linda Jackson, 15, a student at Woodrow Wilson Senior High School in Northwest, said reducing crime cannot be done simply by banning video games.
"I don't think it's all about the game. I think it's about the parents and how you raise your child," said Jackson, who said she heard a report about the ban yesterday.
Yesterday, Fenty stood with more than a dozen religious leaders and activists at First Rock Baptist Church in the Benning Terrace neighborhood, where residents and police have been battling an epidemic of car thefts by juveniles. "These people behind me who work with at-risk youth say this is a problem, and I believe them," he said.
Johnny Barnes, executive director of the local chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, said the bill has a fatal flaw. He noted that a 2003 ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit said that "the government cannot silence protected speech by wrapping itself in the cloak of parental authority."
Staff writers Chris L. Jenkins, Theola S. Labbe, David Snyder and John Wagner contributed to this report.
